When Woodside Priory School basketball player David Gamburd is asked what position he plays on the team, he’s not too sure what to say.
“I don’t know — I play center, I guess,” said the 6-foot senior, shrugging his shoulders.
On a lot of other high school teams, Gamburd would probably be one of the taller players, and potentially fill the center position, but things are a little different at Woodside Priory.
Ahead of Gamburd on the depth chart is the colossal, 7-foot-1 Greg Somogyi, a junior exchange student from Budapest, Hungary.
With the help of Greg, and his 6-foot-5 brother, George, the K-12 Portola Valley school with just 240 high school students has put itself on the map as a bona fide contender to make a championship run.
The Panthers are 13-3 this season and a perfect 6-0 in league games, including a 45-38 win against Sacred Heart Prep that ended the Atherton school’s four-year, 78-league-game winning streak.
And with their hot start, the Panthers, who won just two league games two years ago, have been labeled a top-15 Bay Area team by the San Jose Mercury News.
“It’s been quite a process, changing the perception of the school to that of a competitor,” said Mark Stogner, the school’s nine-year athletic director.
“I was the coach several years ago, and we were the doormat of the league.”
“The school has had a few good years, but historically this hasn’t been a strong team,” said second-year coach Al Klein, who coached Menlo School to a state title in 1983. “But I knew we had a really good team this year. … I’m hoping we can build something here.”
‘Five-man basketball’
Of course, it doesn’t hurt when you have a 17-year-old center as tall as NBA-great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on your side.“Greg’s a very skilled player,” Coach Klein said, noting that he’s garnered interest from several Pac-10 and West Coast Conference colleges. “The amazing thing about Greg is that he can step outside and hit the 15-footer. He’s a very good shooter.”
But Klein said Greg is a part of, rather than the focus of, a game plan that puts emphasis on ball movement and teamwork.
“It’s unfair to say it’s Greg’s team, or that it’s Reggie’s team,” he said, also referring to Reggie Willhite, the senior swingman who leads the team in scoring. “I’m a big believer in five-man basketball. Working together makes us a better team.”
Coach Klein’s words rang true during a recent road victory over Redwood Christian School, based in Castro Valley. Although Willhite lead all players with 28 points, including two game-clinching free throws with three seconds left, and a breakaway dunk; and Greg added 15 points, a slew of rebounds and several monstrous blocks, it was the team’s collective fundamental play that won the game.
The Panthers’ crisp ball movement and gritty, physical play opened up the lanes for the slashing Willhite and drew double and triple coverage away from the towering Greg, allowing the Panthers to erase an early 11-point deficit.
“Last year, Coach Klein changed the attitude of the team,” said senior forward Alex Schreiner. “Now, we have a physical team, and we have the mindset to match that. We all understand our roles, and we all expect good things out of this team.” He added that the team improved to 14-10 last year, during Klein’s first season.
Greg and George credit the Panthers’ success to support from the school community.
“[In the United States] basketball is this big cultural thing. … There’s this whole different atmosphere,” said George. “Everything is new for us, but with students and faculty at games, we have a lot of support.”
“Yes, we have a lot of support here,” echoed Greg. “There is a lot of pressure on me, but others don’t put it on me — I put it on myself.”
The Somogyis
Greg and George played on a club team in Budapest before coming to Woodside Priory.Founded as a monastery school in the 1950s by Hungarian monks, the school has consistently enrolled several Hungarian students a year, Stogner said.
“This program has been in place for a while, and it just happens that our latest exchange students in Greg and George play basketball,” he said, also noting that two other exchange students — one from Japan, and the other from Korea — are also on the team. “Obviously, we’re not going to get a 7-foot-1 Hungarian player every year.”
Greg and George said a recent Hungarian graduate told them about the school.
George, a senior, said he plans to return to Hungary for college, but Greg said he is “99 percent” certain he’ll attend a U.S. university.
The brothers’ also have different playing styles.
Despite his size, Greg gets banged around under the basket, and was thrown to the floor during a scramble for a loose ball in the Panthers’ win over Redwood Christian. George is much more aggressive, blanketing opposing players with tight defense, and picking up his fair share of fouls.
“Greg and George have been vital to our success, and they’re also great guys,” Schreiner said. “I guess you expect the 7-foot-1 Hungarian superstar to come in and be arrogant, but [Greg and George] are just great people.”
Sacred Heart
Although Mr. Klein and the players promise they abide by the sports cliche of “taking one game at a time,” the Jan. 30 rematch with Sacred Heart is clearly on everyone’s mind.“When we beat Sacred Heart earlier this year, it was like the story of David and Goliath,” Schreiner said. “It was the best moment of my basketball career, but now we have the target on our back — they want to beat us on our home court.”
Gilbert Perez, Sacred Heart’s first-year coach, said he’s looking forward to the rematch, and his main focus will be to stop Willhite, rather than Greg.
“We’re taking it one game at a time, but when we face them again, we may very well be 7-1 [in league play], and maybe they’ll be 8-0, and that would make for a good match up.” he said. “When we played them this season, it wasn’t the 7-footer that hurt me, it was Reggie Willhite that hurt me. If anything, [Greg] opened up opportunities for [Willhite].”
“Sacred Heart is certainly the team to beat,” Stogner said. “They have a rich tradition as far as athletics … and that’s the level we aspire to be at.”
The Somogyi brothers have also embraced the rivalry. “Since I was on the soccer team that played Sacred Heart earlier this year, it has become a goal to beat them,” said George. “We have to beat Sacred Heart.”
THE REMATCH
The Woodside Priory basketball team will host Sacred Heart Prep on Jan. 30. The game is scheduled to start at 6 p.m., in the Woodside Priory gym, at 302 Portola Rd. in Portola Valley.
